NPR producer Elizabeth Blair unfortunately did not take issue with the dietary switch in her recent interview with Cookie Monster; however, this guy sounds much more like the Cookie Monster I grew up with. Here’s a snippet from Blair asking CM questions from a version of the Proust Questionnaire:

As part of their Healthy Habits for Life campaign, Sesame Street producers tried to rein in Cookie Monster’s obsession a few years ago. Hootsy the Owl serenaded him with a little ditty called ‘A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food.’ There were rumors that he’d be replaced by a Veggie Monster.

It wasn’t true, but angry fans inundated the Sesame Workshop with letters, and more than 3,000 people signed an online petition.

‘What’s wrong with you people?’ one of them wrote, ‘To quote the monster himself: ‘C is for Cookie, and that’s good enough for me!’

P.S. Sesame Street has also thrown over Grover for Elmo, who is similar but with a more annoying voice. And Gordon and Maria look eerily the same.